Publication in PRR

The brain relies on the movements of (salt) ions and molecules in water to carry information. This gives it the unique capability of employing chemical reactions alongside its electrical properties. Recently, considerable progress has been made on emulating the brain’s electrical side in artificial devices, but the solid nature of the often used materials prohibits accessing the realm of chemical regulation.

In our new publication in Physical Review Reserach, we study well-known microscopic water-filled channels with a chemically active coated surface, inspired by the brain’s watery information processing. By developing new theory and through detailed simulations, we show that these channels can combine electrical and chemical properties to exhibit complex neuron-like behaviors. In our brains, connections between neurons respond to a chemical signal from the first neuron and to an electrical signal of the second neuron. We show how an artificial system responds similarly to chemical signals on one side of the channel and electrical signals on the other side, in close analogy to our own biology. Additionally, we extract both neuronal short-and long-term memory in a single channel through the complex interplay of electrically driven short-term memory effects and newly found chemical long-term memory effects. Our findings provide a deep understanding of these phenomena and a blueprint on how to capture some of the brain’s distinct chemical-electrical capabilities within an artificial system.